Taking TIPs for the future

Rowing:Next weekend Commercial Rowing Club in Dublin will bring 10 juniors to the national trials who had no connection to the sport until the club went out and found them. The club's junior coach, Mick Desmond, says more than 40 of the 70 to 80 youngsters training at the club came in through Talent Identification Programmes (TIPs).

TIPs rub some people up the wrong way. Going into schools and measuring children with a view to how well - or poorly - they might be suited to a particular sport smacks a little of determinism for some. Part of a TIP presentation by Ireland assistant coach Debbie Fox says: "Select potential rowers based on their genetics - this can't be altered. Skill, co-ordination, aerobic capacity, strength can all be trained."

Desmond, who is a big proponent of TIP, says he does not rule out anybody who wants to take up the sport, even if the measurements make it clear they will not develop the optimum physique. He speaks of such factors not being "inhibitors" to going into the sport, but involving "limitations" down the line. "If you've got somebody with an arm span that's shorter than their height they should probably be doing weightlifting. Rowers have an arm span wider than their height.

"Simple things like that. This was being done 40 years ago in East Germany, so there is nothing new in it."

The upswing in the club's fortunes at junior level have been there for all to see. Last weekend Commercial won the junior eight section at the huge Tribesmen Head of the River in Galway. Five of that crew came in through talent identification.

Ireland apprentice coach Neasa Folan has been working on a National Talent Identification Programme, and by the end of the season, when clubs go out to find members, she hopes to have a pack ready for them.

Skibbereen coach Dominic Casey, who developed such international talents as Eugene Coakley and Tim Harnedy, has not adopted the measurement methods of some, but he talks about TIPs as being "a very good idea".

In ways the Corkman has been way ahead of the curve. Each season the club brings in "approximately 200" juniors from eight schools around the area and gives each of them an hour a week in training over a 10-week period.

Skibbereen's Head of the River is set for this Sunday, with an impressive entry of approximately 130 crews, mostly from the Munster area.